From the BBC:
“John Walker Lindh: Anger as
'American Taliban' freed”
John Walker Lindh - the so-called
"American Taliban" - has been released from prison, a move Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo declared "unconscionable". Lindh served 17 years
of a 20-year sentence after he was captured in 2001 fighting in Afghanistan. His early release has sparked fierce
criticism, with many believing he still harbours extremist views. In an
interview with Fox News on Thursday, Mr Pompeo said it was "deeply
troubling and wrong". Mr Lindh
"still is threatening the United States of America" and was
"still committed to the very jihad that he engaged in", he said. His
lawyer Bill Cummings told CNN Lindh would now move from his prison in Indiana
to Virginia and live under the direction of his probation officer.
Who is John Walker Lindh?
Born in Washington DC in 1981 and
named after John Lennon, Lindh was raised a Catholic. He dropped out of school
and converted to Islam at the age of 16, moving to Yemen the next year to learn
Arabic. In 2000 he went to study in
Pakistan and eventually travelled to Afghanistan in May 2001 to join the
Taliban. US forces captured and arrested Lindh shortly after the invasion of
the country in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks. "Had I realised then what I know now
about the Taliban, I would never have joined them," Lindh said during his
sentencing in 2002, on a charge of aiding the Islamist militant group.
Is Lindh still an extremist?
There are concerns that Lindh has
not abandoned his extremism. Foreign Policy magazine published US government
documents in 2017 stating that the prisoner "continued to advocate for
global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts". And in
March last year, Lindh "told a television news producer that he would
continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release", the
documents allege. More recently, The
Atlantic magazine's journalist Graeme Wood wrote letters to Lindh while he was
behind bars and describes him as "unrepentant". "His more than 17 years in captivity
seem, on the basis of this correspondence, to have converted Lindh from an
al-Qaeda supporter to an Islamic State supporter," Mr Wood wrote. After his release John Walker Lindh, now 38,
will not be allowed to go online unless he has special permission, and he
cannot travel freely. He will discover a world that has changed dramatically
since his incarceration and face a society that has done little to prepare for
his arrival. The US government does not have an official programme or set of
procedures to help people convicted of terrorism find their way in the world
after their release. Many experts, including the Federation of American
Scientists' Steven Aftergood, who specialises in national security, say the US
should do more to help. "In the justice system, we say 'You, the criminal,
are not like us'. But there is also a responsibility for society to say at the
end 'There is a place for you in our world'. We're very bad at that."
Can Lindh reintegrate into US
society?
Senators Richard Shelby and
Maggie Hassan - a Republican and a Democrat, respectively - wrote a letter on
Friday to the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking how to handle such cases. Obtained by the Washington Post, the letter
urges the group to consider "the security and safety implications for our
citizens and communities who will receive individuals like John Walker
Lindh". But others are less concerned. Investigative journalist Trevor
Aaronson says Lindh is the 476th person convicted of terrorism after the
September 11 terror attacks who has now been released. "To be clear, the federal government has
no program to monitor released terrorists - suggesting that convicted
terrorists can be rehabilitated completely after relatively brief sentences or
that many of these people weren't particularly dangerous in the first
place," Mr Aaronson tweeted.
^ Referring to my previous post
about the Death Penalty Lindh is definitely one of those cases (terrorism)
where it should have been used. Releasing Lindh with no real plan set out and
with him still preaching his violence and hate is not a good idea. I believe he
will simply go back to his old terrorist ways and is a danger to society. ^
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